Talking WA politics.

Category: Journalism

Dec.30th

Sometimes dealing with corporations can make you feel like you’ve fallen down some Orwellian rabbit hole.

In reporting on a six-month follow up on the state’s cell phone ban, my editor asked me to see if Bluetooth headsets were still selling like hotcakes — the largest manufacturer reported a three-fold increase in sales of car kits after cell phone bans went into effect for motorists in California and Washington in July.

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Dec.9th

Are you paying too much in taxes? Check your cell phone bill. If you are being overcharged, we want to hear from you.

We found one Pierce County resident in Graham was being charged a Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) tax — as a portion of the sales tax — on her cell phone bill, even though she lives about five miles outside the taxation district boundary.

Update: And since then we’ve found two others who are in the same boat.

We’re trying to figure out how accurate phone companies’ methods are for figuring out who should be taxed. The state recently admitted its methods had an extreme number of errors, resulting in about $3 million being owed back to residents.

(You may not be able to tell on some cell phone bills because the RTA tax isn’t broken out from the sales tax. The customer in question uses Verizon and it was broken out on the bill she provided to us.)

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May10th

The Associated Press held a retirement party Friday night for Ammons, who covered state government and politics for the non-profit news cooperative for 37 years. As Seattle Times political reporter David Postman noted, Ammons got there even before Helen Sommers. His departure brought a Who’s Who in Evergreen State politics to the reception room at the Temple of Justice in Olympia.